so, i can save carrot seeds

[rxkeith]

i had never saved carrot seeds before, so this year i left a row of carrots in the ground that were a late season planting,
just to see if they would grow to a decent size. they stayed small, so i let them be. they survived the winter, flowered, and
now have mature umbrells that i snipped off and filled up a vial box full. i should have thought this through better.
first, i don't need this many carrot seeds can you say millions.
second, i have more than one variety out there, so they are going to be a mix of some sort. they all came from sandhill, so good
varieties, but the mix?

i plan on planting a row of them next year to see what i get. if anyone wants to take a flier, i can send some into the swap.
they would be experimental. buyer beware, no guarantees.
anyone have results from saving seeds from a mixed crop of carrots what the progeny was like?



keith

[bower]

Nothing wrong with mixing your carrots. If the parents are good, well the offspring tend to be like the parents. Do you have different colors? I know some people who save seeds from a rainbow carrot mix and it's just fine. The upside is, they will tend to become better adapted to your site every generation.
What kind of carrots did you grow?

[Tormato]

Here, the downside is likely crossing with Queen Anne's Lace, which grows on the roadsides in many locations. With carrots, most years I would get a few plants that would flower and go to seed the first year.

[rxkeith]

i don't remember which varieties they were. probably a nantes type, maybe a st valery.
no other colors than orange. i tried the colors before, and i think the orange is just a better
over all flavor, so, no yellow, or purples.

i haven't seen any queen annes lace growing near the garden patch. it does grow wild here, so cross
pollination is possible. i don't know how far separation distance needs to be. with the density of the
row of carrots, it is more likely that the carrots were pollinated by the other carrots, i would think, eh.


keith

[rossomendblot]

i don't remember which varieties they were. probably a nantes type, maybe a st valery.
no other colors than orange. i tried the colors before, and i think the orange is just a better
over all flavor, so, no yellow, or purples.

i haven't seen any queen annes lace growing near the garden patch. it does grow wild here, so cross
pollination is possible. i don't know how far separation distance needs to be. with the density of the
row of carrots, it is more likely that the carrots were pollinated by the other carrots, i would think, eh.


keith

Real Seeds is a popular, small seed company in the UK and they have some good advice on seed saving. Here they say 500 metres - https://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedsavinginfo.html

[bower]

If it's not near the garden, you're probably okay from the Queen Anne's Lace. Those big distances are really applicable to commercial seed crops where a cross would spoil the product. Or conservation work where it's essential to save seed from the pure line.
Carrot seed is expensive to buy and since it requires overwintering, rarely saved by gardeners to share or swap. I would think that a Nantes/St. Valery cross would make a fine orange carrot, and that someone would be glad to grow it. Even if you kept all the seed yourself - technically I think you can freeze the seed for future years, which does not keep viable many seasons at room temperature - it is worth the cash for your own growing purposes. Why not.

[GoDawgs]

i plan on planting a row of them next year to see what i get. if anyone wants to take a flier, i can send some into the swap.
they would be experimental. buyer beware, no guarantees.
anyone have results from saving seeds from a mixed crop of carrots what the progeny was like?
keith

Thanks for sending those seeds in to the MMMM. I asked for some and sowed 8' of them two days ago. They're sharing a row with little scallions set out recently. Pretty seeds. Good job! I'll let you know how they do. You're name is on the tag.



There's one Danvers 126 from last spring that popped up late fall and has been growing nicely over the winter. Hoping it makes seed as I've not saved carrot seed before.

[JRinPA]

I was just looking at the carrot/parsnip bed and thinking how weedy it is getting again. So I went and pulled the tallest weed...
Leaning closer, I thought it looked like a carrot as I pulled. Yep, carrot. I thought they seeded the second year. Is it at all common for carrots to seed the first year?

The carrots are tendersweet from this spring's planting. Never had carrots there before.
Nicely shaped carrot too.
I just bored the hole out and stuck it back in, and gave it a lot of water, see what happens.

I guess I'll try to save seed if it recovers from the trauma.

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[rxkeith]

carrots are biennial, but i guess anything can happen on a limited basis.
something i have learned this year is that carrots are a good crop to winter sow.
i have had issues getting carrots going in the spring sometimes. my carrot patch in the garden
is from seeds that fell to the ground as i was collecting the seeds or just dislodged by the wind.
those plants are way ahead of the carrots i planted in the spring intentionally. maybe mulch to protect the seeds.
no idea if some varieties are more winter hardy than others.
quality of the carrots has been good. there have been a few big honkers. the carrots are all over to some extent
mixed in with the beans, volunteer parsley, volunteer greens, and missed potatoes from last year.
i still have a gallon freezer bag of seeds in the fridge. i would put them in the freezer, but the freezer is full.
if you decide to save seeds, i would suggest writing down the variety(s) so you don't forget and where they are in
the garden in the event you dig them up accidentally. pot or bucket might work too for over wintering.
how far from queen anns lace or other varieties do carrots need to be to prevent cross pollinating? don't know that one.
just a few plants is all you need for seeds for yourself, and a few others perhaps. i had a lot more than that.


keith

[JRinPA]

I had pretty good results this year with making a cornstarch slurry, adding the seeds, putting in a ziploc bag and cutting a corner to dribble a line of seeds. It worked well for carrots. The parnips, same time, came up really sparsely. I wonder if I cooked the parsnips seeds with hot cornstarch, parsnip are such a thin, frail seed.

I should add, they came up well enough in the row sowing in-ground, but once again the raised box bed proved too dry or hot or cold or something. Germination from the same bag/same planting was much worse.

I checked that replanted carrot and it is leaning over, I wish I had looked more closely before pulling it out.

[JRinPA]

There is another carrot flowering in the raised bed. That may have had carrots there last year, but I think it was the next row over, and besides that it got hoe-ed pretty well. So I tend to think that is also a single year going to seed.

It was a very slow start, seed was up, then it frosted fairly late. Maybe these few outliers were precocious carrots that took the late spring as a short winter.

[rxkeith]

i have about 40 lbs of carrots pulled over the past few days. most were from
the main garden , i'll call it the carrot bed. there were no rows. they were carrots that grew
from seeds dropped from last years plants. i only thinned as i picked them. there is a broad size
range. two close planted rows in my wife garden were rather dense, and should have been thinned.
carrots from there were a later planting when the first sowing mostly didn't come up. wife planted them
too deep. though small, they are still tasty. a pretty full gallon freezer bag of seeds are in the fridge. i am
good to go for next year.


keith

[JRinPA]

A gallon of carrot seed...awesome. I had a quart or so of parsnip seed one year, but they are bigger per seed.

I still have seeds on the second sprouting carrot I found, not sure about the first. Well I guess I put an agribon bag over the first. So hopefully it caught seed.

[Hornad]

The parnips, same time, came up really sparsely. I wonder if I cooked the parsnips seeds with hot cornstarch, parsnip are such a thin, frail seed.

I planted some parsnip seeds in the spring of 2023 that only sprouted just a few weeks ago